The Broken Pendulum

03: Anyone, Anywhere, Hidden in plane sight

Fin, Therion, and Sixtus are all minding their own business only to come across a Lich with a dog collar with sweetie written on it. He was asking for help, only for him to 'zap' and then started shambling back the direction we were heading. Therion decides to follow 'Sweetie', where he leads the group down to some forested area. Fin finds an elven teenager in the tree tops during the journey, only for the teenager elf to jump away, Sextus thought he was weird.

The Lich leads to a little girl picking flowers for her mom. The girl notices that the Lich and mentions that he's probably going to the graveyard. The little girl runs off with some wild flowers. Sixtus says there is evil in the area, and that the group should take care of it. The group leads to the graveyard, with Fin staying in the trees to be out of sight.

The graveyard the group approaches has a lot of graves opened up and dug out, there is also grave-keepers house. Fin is still in the trees. As the group gets closer to the graves, they notice that there are a lot of zombies just walking, but they don't seem to care about Sixtus or Therion or anyone about anything. They are just walking back and forth.

The Lich walked into the house, Fin says he can sneak in for the group. Fin hears a little boy voice making demands. The boy is a small half-orc, probably 5 or 6, but then notices Fin then runs. Fin tries to chase after him, into a parlor with spooky skeletons. The group fights some skeletons. And then kill them all, or rekill them. The group runs after the direction of where Fin last saw the boy run off to.

The group fight a zombie along the way. A bedroom was found, where a scroll of chill touch was found and Fin took some 300 GP and split it with Therion.

The group finds the master bedroom, where Fin hears the boy behind. Fin picks the lock but the boy pleads for them not to open the door or he will have to attack. The lich shows up behind the group. Fin is able to persuade the boy to allow him to open the door. The boy, who looks like the small elven boy from earlier, and talks about how his master taught him his necromancer abilities. The boy mentions that the master is there with him, although the group can't see him.

The boy, whose name is Noss, scared, starts muttering the Changeling manta 'Anyone, anywhere, hidden in plane sight'. Fin picks up on it and to win his trust shows that he is a Changeling as well. This wins the boy's trust and shows his true form as a white skinned Changeling.

The boy's, master appears as a smoky figure, spawning from the boy's necromantic staff (wooden staff with a skull on the end), and slashes the boy dead. Fin in anger attacks the damage and the party engages in battle. In the midst of battle, the Lich from earlier joins in with a fireball to help out.

After the 'master' was defeated Fin goes to the boy and mourns the loss. He notices a locket on the boy, and inside is a picture of a woman that Fin recognizes… and figures out the boy is his own son that he had when he was way too young.

Therion picks up the staff the boy had and realizes it still has necromantic energy still within, and with its last charge is able to bring Noss back to life.

02: The Dragon and the Castle

Fin, Therion, and Sixtus plan their trip north to Ozryn by stopping by The Silver Buckler (a general goods store not to be confused with The Silver Shield). Once inside, Fin purchases ten rations, a bed roll, and soap. Therion purchases eight rations and a bedroll. Sixtus purchases nothing.

The party sets out on the road, knowing that the journey will take eight days; seven to reach the coast where they will have to charter a ferry, and one day at sea to the island that contains Ozryn. Once darkness descends on the first night of travel, the party makes camp by a stream. Sixtus catches a fish with his hands and Fin asks Sixtus to teach him how to do that. Sixtus obliges and Fin watches and learns. The party eats dinner and retires for the evening, taking watch shifts. Therion goes first and nothing out of the ordinary occurs. Fin takes second watch and, towards the end of his shift, hears a loud splash in the stream and feels the ground shake.

The party awakens with a start to find a red elder dragon. She speaks (to Therion who is the only party member who understands draconic) and informs the party that an evil princess has taken over her castle and took her wyrmlings hostage. After much hesitation, the party agrees to go with the dragon to her castle. They climb on her back and are whisked away.

As dawn breaks, the party see the castle in the clearing. The dragon lands in front of the castle and tells the party that if she goes any further, the princess will kill her babies. Therion tells the dragon that the party will get her children back, and then the party descends into the castle.

The castle is old, abandoned, but extremely structurally sound. It has been made with the most skillful masonry and has stood the tests of time.

The party travels through the castle, in the first room disarming a falling column trap and in the second room dispatching monstrous centipedes. During the battle with the centipedes, Sixtus extracted some white matter from one of the dying centipedes. He later explained that it was the centipede's essence and that it made him stronger.

Farther through the castle, the party encounters an ankheg and finds random treasures as they march towards the back of the castle. They reach the old kitchens and see a statue of a king. On the pedestal of the statue the party finds a ceremonial dagger and an inscription. Most of the inscription is to weathered to read but the party makes out the text "Good King…. …. betrayed by his closest advisors." The party takes the ceremonial dagger and plunges it into the statue's back, revealing a hidden door. The party travels through the door to find three wyrmlings, bound and shackled, and a manic princess.

The party tries to reason with the princess but are unsuccessful. The party learns that the princess believes that the castle belongs to her because she cannot be a princess without a castle. The party also knows that there has been no nobility in Yrego in at least 300 years. The princess further says that she knows she's a princess because her father told her so growing up, and she intended to take this castle and rule the surrounding territories.

The party, sensing that she was not in a right state of mind, decided to bound her for her own good. Fin cast a sleep spell on the princess, Sixtus bound her hands with some rope, and Therion assured the wyrmlings. As the princess came to, Fin was picking the locks binding the young dragons. The princess shouted threats to the party as the dragons were being freed. As he quickly unchained them, Therion instructed the wyrmlings to join him in the other room for safety. As the last dragon is freed, the princess casts a flame spell on her bindings. As soon as her hands are free, Sixtus instinctively swings his greatsword and separates the princess' body from her head. The party removes some fancy gloves from the body.

Once back at the entrance, wyrmlings in tow, the dragon thanks the adventurers. She asks them to wait as she flies to one area of the castle and returns with a bag in her mouth. Inside the bag is general treasure, in addition to a bottle of magical pigments, some unidentified magical goggles, and the deed to the castle.

The dragon takes her babies onto her back and flies away in search of a safer home. The party reenters the castle, finds the lord's hall, and rests for the night.

01: The Shrine

Therion and Fin meet up in the local tavern, The Silver Shield. Therion, the professor at the local college, Dehalam, is interested in engaging commoners in battles of wits.

After spending 2cp each purchasing ale, Therion approaches a woman eating dinner. She is an elven female with amber eyes and dark hair. He asks her what she keeps in her pouches. She responds "ink pots, quills, and parchment" and further explains that she is a scribe.

Following this encounter, the party approaches a beefy male human in fine traveling clothes who admits that he is in town to explore a shrine, on the outskirts of town, where paranormal activity is said to have taken place recently. The party immediately notices a large golden medallion with a dragon around the traveler's neck. The traveler offers for the party to join him. Therion, motivated by the potential for runes and knowledge within the shrine agrees. Fin, being a changeling and scouting Therion as a potential new identity to assume, considers this an ideal time to get time alone with his companion and agrees to come. The traveler bids the party to meet him back at The Silver Shield the following morning and they will journey to the shrine.

When the adventurers return, they notice that the traveler is not there. After apt searching, they discover the medallion in the seat where the adventurer was the night before. Therion picks up the medallion and the adventurers proceed to the shrine without the traveler.

Once inside, they notice murals on the wall of some valiant warrior whom they are not familiar with. Additionally, there is a pedestal with a bowl in the center of the room. Therion notices that the whole shrine is radiating with magical energy. Fin pickpockets Therion and places the dragon medallion into the plate, to no avail. Therion places a gold piece into the bowl and Fin places a copper piece into the bowl. The bowl reacts violently and spits Fin's copper piece back out. Fin then makes an equal offering of one gold piece and the coins disappear and a passage is revealed into the shrine's labyrinth. The party navigates to a similar room depicting murals of arrows raining on people, find an arrow in the room, and Fin place the arrow in a similar offering plate to reveal a new passage.

After proceeding down a corridor, the party approaches a room that is a dark pit with no discernable bottom. Fin picks a stone up from the ground and throws it into the room. The stone comes to rest at floor level over the chasm. Therion then uses his arcane ability to determine that the room is an illusion and safe to trespass. The party approaches a door on the other side. Fin attempts to lock pick the door and fails. He attempts it again and is thrown back, taking force damage. Therion discovers that the door is enchanted with old magic, and only by finding the enchanted key will the door open.

The party backtracks, takes a separate path, and enters a room. They immediately notice a key on the other side of the door. Therion uses his mage hand to remove the key. As he does, a portcullis slams down behind the party and the stones in the wall animate into a golem. The party dispatches the golem but the portcullis does not raise. A door appears on the opposite of the room. After going through the door, the adventurers find another door at the end of a hallway, and go through. They are transported to another part of the dungeon.

As they approach the next door, the key reacts and it opens. Inside is a sarcophagus, and large swaths of treasure. Fin attempts to pick up a coin when the lid to the sarcophagus is blow off. Out steps a mummy who paralyzes the party, but not before taking the key from Therion and fleeing through the other door (the same one that threw Fin back when he tried to pick it earlier). The party regains their mobility and runs for the temple entrance. They find that another wall has been blasted into the main room, revealing a hallway with another empty sarcophagus.

When the party departs the shrine, they notice the mummy's footsteps take a few paces and then disappear into thin air. Fin is able to determine that a teleport spell was used here. Therion determines that all magical energy has left the shrine. The party returns to town to look in the college's library for information.

On the way to the library, the party is approached by Sixtus, a Kor who accuses Therion of having his medallion. Upon question, the only information that Sixtus will offer is that the medallion belongs to him and that Therion should hand it back. When asked how he knows the party has the medallion, Sixtus explains that he can sense it. Fin says the medallion is valuable to stopping the mummy. He then accuses Sixtus of being the one who let the mummy out. Sixtus explains that the party freed Lord Eltumal, that the medallion will not help them in their quest, and that the medallion belongs to him. Sixtus further explains that his mission is to stop Eltumal.

Therion hands the Medallion to Sixtus as an act of goodwill and the party offers to join Sixtus in his quest, who accepts. Sixtus recommends that the party go to the college library to find information on Eltumal. Once arrived, and now that the party knows the mummy's name, they learn that Lord Eltumal was the lord of Grascamere before going mad one day and killing his subjects. The subjects revolted, killed Eltumal, and entombed him in the shrine. They also learned that Eltumal served a higher power which is not listed in the college's texts.

When determining where to go next, Sixtus explains that he can sense the magic, as with the medallion, if he's close enough. The party leads him back to the teleport point in front of the shrine. Sixtus is able to determine that the destination point is Ozryn, an island in the north east of Yrego.